SAN JACINTO: Man accused of trying to abduct kids captured

A Hemet man who allegedly tried to abduct three children was arrested Wednesday, nearly two months after fleeing from investigators when they tried to make contact with him.

Kareem Amil Lewis, 33, was being held without bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, where he was booked after being arrested around 1 a.m. at an apartment in San Bernardino, across the street from an elementary school.

According to Riverside County sheriff's officials, investigators received tips that an individual matching Lewis' description had been seen in a San Bernardino neighborhood and began surveillance of the location, resulting in the 6-foot-3, 240-pound man's apprehension.

Lewis was booked on suspicion of three counts of attempted kidnapping, annoying a minor and lewd acts with a child younger than 14.

According to sheriff's Detective Cassandre Pemberton, the defendant allegedly tried to pull a boy into his vehicle and on two separate occasions followed young girls and tried to lure them into his car.

The first encounter occurred in October when a girl said she was accosted by a man who told her to climb inside his vehicle, prompting her to run home, Pemberton wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit.

A few days later, a boy walking in the same area was grabbed by a "large'' man who tried to pull the youth into a vehicle, but the child wriggled free and ran away, Pemberton said.

On Feb. 14, a 15-year-old girl on her way home from school said a "big'' man in a red Ford Mustang accosted her, "opened the passenger door from inside and asked (her) if she needed a ride," according to the affidavit.

The teenager fled and reported the incident to her family.

The following day, the girl's 21-year-old sister was returning from the grocery store with her child when she spotted a Mustang circling the neighborhood, "passing her multiple times by making U-turns,'' Pemberton wrote.

The driver stopped and asked her if she wanted a lift, at which point the woman noted the license plate, ignoring the inquiry. She gave the information to sheriff's deputies, who traced the plate back to Lewis' girlfriend's residence, according to Pemberton.

The detective said that around the same time, a 15-year-old Hemet girl was approached by the driver of a Ford Mustang who called for her to get into his vehicle, but she refused. That teen, as well as two of the other alleged victims, identified Lewis based on a photographic lineup, investigators said.

When they attempted to contact the defendant at his girlfriend's Hemet residence in February, he fled out the back door, according to Pemberton.